Building 370 With 330 (Officer'S Mess), Raf Henlow

Officers' Mess
1933, designed by the Air Ministry's Directorate of Works and Buildings. Red facing brick laid in Flemish bond with Portland stone dressings and slate roofs.

Layout
The building follows a characteristic symmetrical plan. A two-storey central block contains public rooms and the mess, with the main mess running transversely across the middle and kitchens with services to the rear. This central block is linked on each side to two-storey ranges set back from the main frontage. Long returned arms extend forward from these ranges to enclose a broad entrance courtyard. A later wing to the right (north-east) is not included in the listing. Inside the main block, the entrance lobby and hall lead to the bar and lounge, writing room and similar public spaces, with the large dining room positioned centrally but transversely to the rear. The bedroom wings are double-banked with central entrances facing the courtyard, accessed through the link blocks. All roofs are low-pitched and hipped.

Exterior
Most windows are glazing-bar sashes set beneath rubbed brick voussoirs in a lighter brick than the main walling, with stooled stone sills. The nine-bay centre block has replacement plain sashes. The central section steps forward beneath a closed pediment containing a small bulls-eye light above three closely-set windows. A pair of polished hardwood panelled doors with plain overlight is recessed between plain Roman Doric piers supporting a plain entablature with cornice and blocking—all in stone but mounted on brick antae. A small window appears on each return of this pedimented section. On each side of the ground floor, the central bay features a pair of glazed French doors with louvred shutters. The six-bay link blocks have lower eaves and roof-lines, fitted with 16-pane sashes.

The bedroom wings have hipped roofs and face the courtyard in nine bays. The centre bay projects forward and rises above the eaves-line to a flat, flush stone-coped parapet above a stone-dressed central feature. This comprises a 16-pane sash in a Gibbsian surround beneath a closed pediment, above a pair of panelled doors in a wide pilaster surround with frieze and cornice. Three bays with 16-pane sashes flank each side, with outer end bays having 12-pane sashes. The right wing has four brick stacks on the inner roof slope, the left wing two. The roof of the right wing has been extended by one or two bays to the rear. The outer faces of the wings feature some larger sashes and, toward the rear, smaller lights for service rooms.

The outer ends of the wings are emphasised with a central brought-forward section in brickwork, featuring windows and doors in stone surrounds. The 16-pane sash sits in a Gibbsian surround (without pediment) above a panelled door in wide pilasters beneath a plain frieze and cornice. The brickwork is swept inward at the haunches above the eaves-line and rises high to a simple capping. Each floor on each side has a 16-pane sash. Brick quoins to these ends and to the centre block are rusticated, with three courses brought forward to one recessed. A small box eaves runs all round, on a cyma mould to the centre.

Interior
The entrance circulation area has polished oak panelling. A fine dog-leg staircase features turned balusters to a solid string and square newels with simple finials, all in polished oak. The lounge has a brick fire surround, polished oak dado panelling and doors, picture rail and ceiling cornice. The dining room has a flat segmental plaster panelled ceiling above a continuous horizontal moulded architrave, panelled doors in moulded architraves, wall pilasters, and high-level windows. Above the doors to the servery is a bowed balcony with Art Deco metal balustrade, supported on four cantilevered consoles. The bedroom wings were not inspected, but a high level of detailing was maintained throughout the building.

History
Dated 1933, this officers' mess illustrates the impact of consultation with the Royal Fine Arts Commission on military airfield architecture through its handling and detail. It is the most distinguished of a well-planned and handled series of buildings constructed on the domestic site at RAF Henlow during the 1932-4 period, featuring gauged detail to sand-faced external brickwork and high-quality internal treatment. It is the best example of the more refined airbase architecture of this period after the messes at Lee-on-Solent and Biggin Hill, and the mess and offices at Cranwell, Lincolnshire.

It is also one of the principal buildings on this historically important site, being the most impressive of a well-handled group of administrative and domestic buildings on what by the Second World War had become one of the RAF's major repair bases. The domestic site, which underwent an extensive rebuilding programme concentrated in the first half of the 1930s, is situated across the A6001 to the south of the technical group. This area has retained an extensive group of married quarters executed in the Garden City tradition, and barracks and office buildings dated 1933-5 which display unique architectural treatment for a military air base.

RAF Henlow was established in 1917 as the Eastern Command Repair Depot, raised to Group status in 1965 and still in RAF hands. The War Office had issued instructions for the construction of repair depots for each RFC Command, following heightened awareness of the need to train more men in the rapid repair of aircraft and aero engines to sustain the war effort. Construction at Henlow—conveniently served by the Midland Railway—began in 1917, and some of the more substantial structures including the hangars date from this time; the last of the huts dating from this period were demolished in the 1970s. The first service personnel arrived from Farnborough in May 1918, and a limited output of Bristol fighters and de Haviland aircraft was achieved by the Armistice. An extra area was added in early 1920, and in March of that year Henlow became the Inland Area Aircraft Depot. It was thus one of a very small number of airfields retained for use after November 1918, in its role as the RAF's flight test and maintenance centre forming a vital element within Sir Hugh Trenchard's newly-independent air force.

By 1924, when it was selected as the permanent home of the School of Aeronautical Engineering, Henlow was producing 35 engines and 15 aircraft each month. In its role as a training base for skilled engineers and equipping operational stations with the latest aircraft, it became, with Cranwell, Halton and Uxbridge, one of the RAF's largest bases, accommodating some 7000 personnel of various nationalities in 1940. Basic engineering theory and management were taught at the Officers' Engineering School (formerly at Farnborough); one of the 1932 pupils was Frank Whittle. The Aircraft Riggers' School was brought in after 1935, and during the Second World War the site performed a vital function as one of the RAF's largest Maintenance Units, overhauling, repairing and modifying a wide range of fighters and bombers, from Spitfires and Typhoons to Lancasters. A significant period was during the Battle of Britain in 1940: Hurricanes manufactured in Canada were crated in, assembled at Henlow and flown onto front-line bases. At one stage in 1941, in Operation Quickforce, about 100 Henlow fitters were trained for the assembly of Hurricanes on carriers en route for Malta, to which the completed planes were flown off deck. The Control Tower was at this time manufactured from packing case material, and still remains. Parachute training, including SOE officers, was another key function of the base. In 1947 the School of Aeronautical Engineering became the RAF Technical College, moving to Cranwell in 1965.